Paul’s Home of Children was founded in 2020 and was named after the efforts of Paul Burkart (class of 2012) who has since been at the forefront in supporting the disadvantaged and marginalized children of Arusha. Paul currently lives in New York but returns to Arusha annually to check on the NGO, run new projects and spend time with one of the children he sponsors (Mwainasha) and pays to attend Green Valley School.

The NGO consists of an orphanage (8 children before January) and various income generating projects while employing widows and HIV positive individuals.  

Prior to this trip income was generated through a fuel transportation project and a bakery (set up in 2023 which produces 10,000 mandazi - donuts - a day).

Last December a fundraising campaign was organized and with the help of family, friends and past pupils of Blackrock over €7,000 (including cash donations) was raised.

The money was spent on the following projects:

Bakery - An industrial oven and mixing machine were purchased for the bakery and will be used for bread production. The revenue that this will generate will ensure that the orphanage is fully self sufficient and extra profits will go towards emergency expenses for the children.

Running water – water pipes were installed from the home to the main road and a tap was put in which fills a 10,000-litre water tank.

Toilets and showers- the previous toilets/showers were effectively two holes in the ground in an outside structure. The toilets were torn down, rebuilt with a concrete roof reinforced with iron, the water tank was installed on the roof, pipes were put into the walls, western showers and toilets were fitted and the bathrooms tiled.

Goats- Two goats which the children are tasked to take to pasture daily. They will start producing kids within 3 months which will then be sold at market

Chickens- Fifty chicks, a coup and 75kg of chicken feed. The chicks will be fully grown within 3 months and will then be sold for profit and the hatch/feed replaced.

Laptops- Chrome books for each of the children were donated by a NY based charity called Susie’s Wagon and MacBooks were donated to the staff by a marketing company called Mattio Communications. Microsoft Office Suite has been installed on each of the PCs and weekly computer classes are being held to teach computer literacy.

Further tasks accomplished include getting two of the children admitted into a state run boarding school for 80,000tsh a year and organizing a visit to the home by Dr. Ellen Roberts (mother of past pupils Dara and James Roberts) and 6 of her colleagues.

Updates on all of the work completed this year are currently being posted to the Instagram page @paulshomeofchildren which is kindly being run by Sophie Keane, another Irish girl also based in New York. https://www.instagram.com/paulshomeofchildren/

Next year Paul hopes to set up a recycling and bee keeping project along with building a new school/daycare. The school will be situated on the outskirts of Arusha, just off the Nairobi road, and will have capacity for 120 children aged 2-7.In similar fashion to other schools in the region it will operate by those who can afford to pay a small monthly fee will, and those who cannot will attend for free. The monthly fee will go towards the room and board for the three teachers (2 of which Paul worked with previously, the last will be a local) and porridge for the children.

Email: pneburkart@gmail.com